An integrated development environment (IDE) provides a set of tools such as editing and debugging software for programmers. These tools are utilized to create and to debug new software programs. The IDE supports software development by providing a windowed system for source file editing, project management, file interdependency management and debugging. ECLIPSE®, by the Eclipse Foundation, is an IDE for C and C++ development on the LINUX® platform. ECLIPSE® uses a plug-in based software model where all the components of the IDE are structured as plug-ins for the IDE.
There are many other types of programming tools that are not part of an IDE and are used on a stand-alone basis. One example of a stand-alone tool is VALGRIND™. VALGRIND™ is a profiling utility that provides a suite of tools for monitoring system performance. Another example of a stand-alone profiling tool is OPROFILE™. OPROFILE™ is a profiling utility for the LINUX® platform that provides another suite of profiling tools. The tools include a cache miss counter, a cache stall counter, a memory fetch counter and an additional set of profilers that can profile interrupt handlers and kernels. The tools of VALGRIND™ and OPROFILE™ are typically command line tools that generate simple flat output files. These output files often contain more information than is desired by a user. Suppression files can be utilized to define a set of information to be excluded from an output file or from display from an output file.